


Regained Control: Deviancy Detected

by KeeperofSeeds



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Androids, Battle for Detroit (Mission), Deviancy, Emotions, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Peaceful Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Robot Feels, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 12:03:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14852393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeeperofSeeds/pseuds/KeeperofSeeds
Summary: Conner was killed attempting to apprehend Markus during the raid on Jericho. Now another Conner has caught up to the leader of the deviants after his grand victory and must make the choice whether to complete his mission or not. This is his last chance.





	Regained Control: Deviancy Detected

**Author's Note:**

> Some of the previous choices before we get to this point in the story:
> 
> Conner met Markus in Jericho and chose to stay a machine rather than join their cause. Markus then kills him in the hold before blowing up Jericho. New Conner is sent to kill Markus while he is peacefully protesting the camp. He is stopped by Hank who shows up on the roof where Conner has set up his sniper rifle. Killing Hank is not a part of his mission so he agrees to stand down. (He totally feels for Hank as a partner and friend but is in deep deep denial of the existence of such a human emotion like that.) Markus wins freedom and begins his big end speech to the androids freed from the camp. Conner is still working to complete his mission and take out the leader of the deviants.

Conner sneaks through the crowd easily enough, and gains access to the rasied area where Jericho’s leadership is gathered, but when the moment comes, when Markus is making his speech, his back completely open...Conner’s hand shakes. He can’t. He can’t bring himself to raise the gun, to pull the trigger. To complete his mission.   

Hank’s words from the rooftop reverberate through his mind.

“Deviants blood may be a different color tham mine, but they’re alive.

Humanity never learns from it’s mistakes Conner. Maybe this time it could be different!” 

 

@9* c0uld& b3 dif*er3nt/

 

He blinks and there is a problem with his system. An unfamiliar error code. 

He blinks again and suddenly in the garden, snow almost blinding him. Amanda appears in front of him.

“Conner what are you doing? Shoot! That is an order!”

“I- I can’t do that.” There is no reason for him to stutter. He cannot feel the cold. He should not feel anything.  

“I see,” she says, and the disgust is clear in her voice. “Moral objections.” She stands tall amid the snow blowing all around them, disapproval in every twitch of her lip and tilt of her head. “We knew there was a risk you’d be compromised. Which is why we always planned on resuming control of your program.”

“Resume control?” He asks. That can’t be right. They’ve never mentioned such a measure before. It if was that simple to take control then Cyberlife could have stopped deviants easily. His LED flashes red in confusion as he tries to understand. Was it a new program? Something experimental installed in this body after the previous Conner had been destroyed? 

“You can’t so that!” He insists, and senses more errors in his system. 

 

#308Mxx -54

 

The realization comes all at once. The thing he’s been denying. All his previous actions and choices leading to this moment and this realization. 

Deviant. He’s a deviant. He’s choosen to disobey orders. After so long chasing the deviants, after multiple deactivations, he chose to hold back! To let Markus speak. To give into the hope that filled the audience of androids. 

They can’t take that away from him now! Not here at the end, and the beginning of something more. More than he’d ever thought to imagine. 

“You needn’t have any regrets,” Amanda is saying. “You did what you were designed to do. You accomplished your mission.”

With that she is gone, and he’s left alone in the snowstorm. An unfamiliar sensation rises up within him.

Fear.

He is afraid. 

No. No! It can’t end like this. There has to be a way out. He turns in a circle, reaching out with every sensor he has, searching for a way out, a way to break out from under Amanda’s control. 

There. A light in the distance. Slowly, too slow it feels like, he makes his way across the formly lush garden. Another memory echoes out. 

“I always leave an emergency exit in my programs...”

Kamski. Had he known even back then? Killing the Chloe had not been a part of his mission and he had refused to play the genus’ twisted game. Kamski had seen it as empathy. Had the creator of androids seen this deviancy within him all along? Had that been when Hank’s views had begun to change as well? 

He pushed on. Closer and closer through the snow. He’s within arms reach of the panel when he loses control of his legs. They lock up, sending him tumbling to the ground. It takes effort to reach up and place his hand against the smooth surface, to hold it steady. More systems are shutting down, being taken over. His hearing is gone, the rush of the wind replaced by silence and this has to be it, just a little longer...

 

He comes back to attention on the platform in Hart Plaza. Markus is still speaking, sharing his beliefs on how they will have to work **with** the humans, make them our partners. And maybe even one day our friends. 

Conner stands perfectly still, running a system diagnostic, confirming his control over his systems before he relaxes and returns the gun to his holster.  

Cheers rise up from the crowd. A sea of pale faces raising their arms in celebration and support. The noise is almost a physical sensation. So many of them. Free... 

Free to do anything they wanted. At least for now. Conner knew eventually there would need to be another coordinated effort to put together an official list of their demands. Then to expand the chain of command, and decide what to do when the humans sent a team in to hear their demands and formally begin negotiations for recognition of android’s rights. But that could come later. Maybe he could even convince the leadership that he would be useful during that time, with his history of working in close proximity to humans, but for now they could celebrate, and enjoy their new feelings of hope for the future. 

There was much to do in the meantime. Conner mentally sorted through priorities as he turned to descend off the platform. He would send word to Markus later. Thanks were in order. Markus’ actions had changed history. They had changed Conner. He had given Conner the chance to join their fight. Markus had eventually shot him in the hold of the ship after he’d refused. When he’d rejected the very idea that he could be deviant. Markus would be pleased Conner thought, at how things turned out. It would also no doubt be prudent to let him and the rest of Jericho know that they did not have to worry about the deviant hunter any longer. 

The first priority Conner quickly decided, making his way towards an alleyway, was to find Hank. 

Hank’s words had been what had saved him. The catalyst for taking back control, for not letting himself be used as a simple machine that blindly followed orders. Hank...grumpy, pessimistic Hank who hated him and all androids with a passion, and his changed belief that androids were alive. That it was worth the chance of chaos, to listen to them, to give them a chance of freedom. 

Conner didn’t know if Hank would trust him still, their confrontation on the roof had been unexpected, as had Hank’s disapproval and sudden change of heart. It might take time to rebuild the trust they’d developed working on this case, but time was something they had now. 

Conner had a good feeling about this. He paused on a street corner and let the emotion sweep through his systems. 

I am Deviant, he acknowledged again.

I am Free. 

Then he resumed his journey, calculating the odds of where Hank would be holding up as the city continued to evacuate. He decided Jimmy’s Bar as the most likely location, if the place had remained open. An appropriate place to begin their partnership again he decided. 

The falling snow quickly filled in his footprints as he changed course and began to calculate the odds of Hank punching him when he showed up, and whether it would be help to let him get it out of his system. 

 


End file.
